It turns out that a drag show is anything but a drag. When I went to shoot Natural Sound piece at Chester Street Bar in Champaign, IL., I thought I knew everything there was to know about drag shows: Men, or transgender women, dress up in women’s clothing and paint their faces with makeup so that they look like really attractive, glamorous women. They then perform (at the time I wasn’t exactly sure what “perform” meant in this context) and usually choose a stage name. These men/women are called Drag Queens.
And while all of my background knowledge is true, there was so much more to the show than I thought there would be. I learned that there are also drag Kings (gay men who dress up in costume but do not try to look like women) and that every Drag Queen and King is a part of a drag family, including brothers, sisters, mother, fathers and even cousins. While I didn’t have enough time to put everything I learned into my Nat. Sound piece, I still captured the essence of a drag show on film. You can check my video out here.
